This is a guide from the more experienced to the less experienced and bewildered with our class. My intention is to compile a quick and easy reference for infiltrators, to get you from getting shot in the face wondering why your three sniper rounds to their chest had no effect or why the class isn’t doing what you thought it would.

For starters let’s go into roles. Infiltrators typically fill two roles, the sniper and the CQC or Close Quarters Combat. The builds for these two are completely different from the other, by all means feel free to mix and match the parts and pieces to your playing style but I’ve noticed the separate functions tend to not overlap so well. Here is the loadout and general tactics for both:

Tactics: The sniper is designed to take a rifle at the maximum range (ergo no suppressor as you should be at the edge/off of the enemy minimap) and take out enemies via head shots. You’ll find that most bolt-actions will 1-shot anything in the head (except max suits with no exceptions) unless a heavy has their shield absorb going (they glow faction color). You’ll find trying to hit anything that moves next to impossible so this requires a bit of prep work as you’re trying to find the rock they’re going to be hiding behind and get to an angle that you can tag the tech repairing the max suit or the medic lying in wait (hint: shift holds you steady for 2.15 seconds, make them count). Patience is king, if you can’t find targets you have 100s of meters to run as you find another angle on the target area, you also will typically not get the capture bonus as you’re too far away- so it’s all about finding that enemy sunderer and picking off the fresh spawns or guys swapping classes. Practice distancing your rife- pick a mark and put your ritacle on it, then pull the trigger and see where the bullet lands (a large flash, usually never deviates left or right of the reticle unless you didn’t hold shift or ran out of breath but will go lower on the reticle the further away you are so aim a bit higher when you’re unsure)

Tactics: You are a ghost and if you are seen you die, period. You don’t have the firepower of a heavy or an assault- but you have stealth and the ability to confuse so use them. Knifing will not instant-kill, but it will get rid of their shielding in a single pass but requires an additional 2-3 stabs when you are hitting their armor so get into the habit of stab (middle mouse click) shoot shoot. Suppressors make you never show up on their map- and they can only tell what direction they’re getting hit from which if you’re quick on the trigger won’t help much. Corners and ducking through rooms/windows are what will save you as getting into a gun-fight with any other class means you die, period, so be quick to run like a pansy and when they run past looking for you have that knife action ready.

Special Weapons/Abilities:Recon Dart: Sends a signal (aka hits Q when looking at an enemy) on anything within LOS (line-of-sight aka doesn’t work through walls) of the dart and will even make a cloaked infiltrator or enemy ordinance like bouncing betties visible. Improving causes the darts life to extend and the rate it pings targets to increase (like a sonar blip). Highly useful when helping setup ambushes, not really useful before you get past the 100 cert mark.

Grenade (Decoy): Pings the enemy’s map as a red dot and sounds like a noob holding down the trigger, typically lasting 2-3 minutes unless destroyed. Excellent when put in a sniper’s field of vision for an easy head shot as most will stand over it wondering if they’re in the wrong place.

Grenade (EMP): Lets you run away from a tank or Max, silences a turret for 5 seconds. Worth the points? Not really unless you have a lot of them and like trolling instead of killing. Blinds nearby enemy’s radar for a few seconds as well.

Claymore (TR): Essentially it’s a mine that explodes forward, so angling is key to making sure you kill the guy stepping in front of it and not your buddy shooting at him to the right. Get this and lay them in doorways or points of entry for an easy kill. Put them at the back of a choke point facing down to get a multi-kill of an entire breaching team and listen to them complain that the claymore is so OP.

Bouncing Betty (NC): A grenade that explodes when walked near, so it’s radius is omnidirectional. Make sure you don’t frag your friends or sit behind it like a claymore otherwise you WILL die when the enemy runs by you negating your kill with a suicide.

Proximity Mine (VS): A bouncing betty, without the stupid name.

Armor Upgrades:
Flak protects against explosions, capacitor increases the speed your shield regenerates, and nano weave increases your base health pool. Since you typically don’t survive more than a few rounds anyway go with either the grenade increase or my personal favorite the ammunition belt. More time sniping and don’t need a tech to go with you to drop an ammo before an operation (makes it easier for the enemy to guess your location).

In summary it’s important to remember you are the glass cannon if you’re a sniper, or you’re the black-widow if you’re more CQC oriented. Either way, you will get crushed taking anything head on so getting clever with your hiding places and sneaking up on people is the way to go. If they can see you and start pulling the trigger, you lose- so snipers quit standing on obvious locations like buildings and towers and go atop a rock column the next territory over and hit the punks when they’re checking their map or are pinned behind a rock like you’re supposed to. Don’t get frustrated you can’t get a head shot on a light assault midflight as he’s running through buildings- if you want to do that go heavy and try the LMGs where precision is replaced with sheer volume of fire.